GHL Awarded For Its Leadership in Sustaining the Environment

The South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce (STCIC) has awarded Guardian Holdings Limited (GHL) its 2009 Leadership Award for “Sustaining the Environment: Making the Most of Green Opportunities Award”. The company was honoured for its Guardian Wildlife Fund initiative dedicated to saving the Pawi bird, as well as its nationwide “responsible waste management and collection” drive.

‘A healthy environment is necessary for a healthy society, for people and for business; and is the foundation for a strong, sustainable economy’ says GHL’s Douglas Camacho, Group Executive Director. ‘As a corporation, GHL recognises its direct impact on the environment through daily consumption of energy and paper resources and a potentially indirect impact through provision of financial services to projects in environmentally sensitive areas’.

This spirit is also at the heart of GHL’s environmental stewardship says Group Vice President, Corporate Communications, Maria Rivas-McMillan, ‘where employees engage in a number of initiatives to minimise their carbon footprint. It’s a work in progress and education, information and awareness are the keys to changed behaviour’. Employees get tips through an electronic newsletter, ‘GreeNews’, and are encouraged to make double sided prints, to re-print on the unused side of documents and to recycle used computer printouts by cutting them into smaller pieces to use as scrap paper/message pads. Every Friday newspapers are taken to the Trinidad and Tobago Society for the Prevention for Cruelty to Animals, a win win arrangement. At GHL’s head office in Trinidad & Tobago, employees are charged for using styrofoam boxes as opposed to reusable containers and plates when collecting lunches in the cafeteria. This drives home the ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ message. ‘Reduce, re-use and recycle must become the GHL mantra’, Rivas-McMillan says.



The Promise of the
Pawi

 full colour on recycled paper; 24 pages, saddle-stitched. Available at TT$65
Pride In Pawi: Preserving a National Treasure

The Trinidad Piping Guan or Pawi, Pipile pipile, is endemic to Trinidad and is globally among the most endangered cracids. With a population of approximately 230, its conservation status is listed as critically endangered.
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STCIC hosted its 2nd annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Leadership Awards at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad. The gala ceremony was well attended by representatives of Government and professionals from the energy sector and the sustainability award won by GHL was sponsored by the Ministry of Planning, Housing and the Environment


GHL Group President of Strategic Investments and Projects, Douglas Camacho accepts the Award from Planning Housing and the Environment Minister, Dr. Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde.


The GHL Team at the STCIC Awards